Often, upon reaching their appointed destination and being unpacked, shipping crates for vehicles such as ATVs and PWCs are disposed of by the vehicle dealer or transporter. A shipping crate in accordance with the present inventive design, however, is substantially 100% recyclable.
When certain articles of manufacture are shipped, it is known to enclose the articles in a shipping container, or crate, in order to protect the article from damage caused by objects that would otherwise come in contact with the article, or from damage caused by the article being dropped or otherwise mishandled. When the weight and/or value of the article being shipped within a particular crate are relatively large, the complexity and sturdiness of the respective crate housing the article is also relatively large. Accordingly, for articles such as ATVs and PWCs, metal shipping crates are typically employed.
Several such shipping crates capable of shipping ATVs and PWCs have been proposed. However, the previously proposed crates suffer from various disadvantages as discussed below.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,041, to Dunn, discloses a metal shipping crate for shipping an ATV. According to the Dunn patent disclosure, the disclosed crate is easily modifiable to accommodate different sizes of cargo, e.g., ATVs. According to the Dunn disclosure, the Dunn crate can be either discarded or reused after the cargo has been removed.
The Dunn shipping crate is made of tubular metal rails with separate top and bottom portions that are joined together by tubular metal posts. Further, the bottom portion of the Dunn crate is reportedly adjustable to accommodate various sizes of cargo, as needed.
The Dunn shipping crate, however, suffers from certain disadvantages and inefficiencies which are resolved by a crate in accordance with the present invention. In particular, although the Dunn shipping crate can likely be disassembled after it is used for shipping an ATV, and can be returned to the shipper to be reused, the disassembled Dunn crate takes up an inordinate amount of space, thereby, wasting valuable cargo space when shipping the disassembled crate back to the shipper for reuse.
Further, crates like the one disclosed in Dunn are susceptible to “racking” when weight is placed on top of the crate. Racking, according to this disclosure, refers to a phenomenon where the top of the crate moves independently from the bottom of the crate. Oftentimes, when a structure, such as the rectangular Dunn crate, is moved rapidly, such as by being transported in a truck, the top of the structure will move out of alignment with the bottom of the structure and place undue strain on the joints of the structure. This “racking” effect is exacerbated as the amount of weight placed on top of the structure is increased, such as when heavy shipping crates are stacked on top of each other.
A crate in accordance with U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20040188307, to Beck, suffers from at least the same disadvantages as those described above in regard to the Dunn crate. The ATV shipping crate disclosed in the Beck application includes a base frame and a top frame. Corner posts are received in corresponding sockets located at respective corners of the top and bottom frames. The, top and bottom frames of the Beck crate are maintained a certain distance from each other, the respective distance being determined by the length of the posts.
If the Beck crate were disassembled after use, however, for example to return the empty crate to the shipper for reuse, similar to the Dunn crate above, the Beck crate would take up an excessive amount of valuable space on the vehicle of the return-shipper. Also, like the Dunn crate above, the Beck crate is susceptible to racking. Thus, when used to carry stacked heavy loads, the joints, particularly in the corners of the crate, are vulnerable to cracking, or other forms of deterioration.